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Oppo Digital DV-981HD (UK - DVD)

Chris Gould squeezes the last drops of life from his old collection with the Oppo

Californian-based Oppo Digital have made quite a name for themselves over the last couple of years with their range of feature-packed, yet affordable DVD players. I was first introduced to Oppo Digital when my colleague, David Beamish, reviewed their previous flagship model, the DV-971H, and ever since then I’ve had one eye on their website with a view to upgrading my player.

I first saw the DV-981HD back in November 2006, but at the time I lacked the display technology to take advantage of its advanced feature set. Now, one year and a 1080p LCD TV later, I finally have my hands on one of these little beauties courtesy of Oppo Digital’s authorised UK reseller, CRT Projectors. Yes, that’s right; those of you looking to buy an Oppo can now do so without the hassle of importing, for the very reasonable price of £179.00 including VAT and UK mainland delivery.

Contents

Okay, so the first thing you’ll probably want to know is just what you can expect to find inside of the box. Along with the DVD player itself (which comes in its own cloth carry-pouch) you’ll find a remote control (with batteries), a set of analogue stereo cables, a composite video cable, an HDMI cable, a mains cable and a comprehensive instruction manual. The HDMI cable is around six feet in length, which should be long enough to accommodate most set-ups, and one of the benefits of buying from a UK reseller is that the included mains cable is fitted with a UK mains plug.

Hardware

The DV-981HD is a slim-line player with a black metal chassis and a brushed aluminium finish on the front panel. The panel itself is free from clutter, with only power, eject, play/pause and stop buttons sitting alongside the DVD tray. The tray appears sturdy enough as it travels and blue LEDs are used for power, eject and the LCD display itself. All things considered, the DV-981HD is very attractive.

The rear of the unit is where most of the action is. It is there that you will find the following inputs/outputs:

You’ll probably notice the lack of analogue component outputs. This is because the player is aimed squarely at those using HDMI/DVI. It’s true that the previous model included component out, but the impressive DCDi technology (more of which later) was disabled when connecting in this manner so it’s not such a huge loss.

The included remote control is reasonably well laid out and packed with buttons that control almost all of the unit’s functions, but the size is such that it is difficult to reach the uppermost buttons with your thumb without repositioning your hand. This is slightly irksome, but it’s a problem with many remotes. I also found the placement of the play/pause, shuttle and skip buttons a little awkward as they are further down towards the base of the remote. I would have preferred it if they had been grouped just below the directional pad, as this is the natural resting point for the user’s thumb. On the plus side, the buttons are responsive and they glow in the dark!

Now we get to the good stuff; the reason that I wanted a DV-981HD to begin with: DCDi by Faroudja (a Genesis company). DCDi performs a number of functions, including film mode detection, TrueLife enhancement, motion adaptive noise reduction, cross colour separation and deinterlacing, the last of which is essential when viewing standard definition video on modern high definition displays. Have you ever watched a film and noticed strange horizontal lines or jagged edges? Without getting too technical, this is an unfortunate side-effect of the interlaced video standards (NTSC and PAL) used in broadcast television and DVD video.

While most CRT sets display interlaced images, LCD and plasma displays are progressive in nature and must therefore deinterlace video before it can be displayed. Unfortunately they do not always make a good job of deinterlacing (especially the cheaper models), and while there are plenty of budget DVD players that offer ‘progressive scan’ output they are often unable to handle the improperly flagged and mixed-mode content found on some poorly authored DVDs. DCDi, on the other hand, is renowned for producing superior results at an attractive price-point.

The second important function performed by the DV-981HD is high definition up-conversion. Essentially, this technology takes the 480i or 576i standard definition NTSC or PAL video from your DVD and converts it to high definition resolutions at either 720p or 1080p. While it is true that HD displays are capable of scaling standard definition video, the same rule of thumb applies here as it does with deinterlacing—some displays do a very poor job. It is generally accepted that standalone units are more capable than all but high-end displays costing thousands of pounds.

If the last few paragraphs have left you scratching your head wondering what the hell ‘interlaced’, ‘progressive’ and ‘up-conversion’ are all about, why not visit the Genesis and Oppo websites for infinitely more detailed explanations of the concepts.

Software

The DVD-981HD’s GUI grants access to all of the settings and tweaks we’ve come to expect from our DVD players. It’s not the most attractive GUI I’ve ever seen, but it gets the job done and is far from hideous. Settings are divided into five categories: General Setup, Speaker Setup, Audio Setup, Video Setup and Preferences.

The General Setup page allows you to set your TV display type, change the brightness of the player’s LEDs during operation (handy if you like to watch in a dark room), activate the screensaver or angle mark, set DVD-Audio and SACD options, view DivX on-demand info and change DivX subtitle fonts. The TV display option has four settings, 4:3 Pan/Scan, 4:3 Letterbox, 16:9 Wide and 16:9 Wide/Auto. The last of these options is a nifty little feature that pillar-boxes 4:3 content within a 16:9 frame, which is very useful for maintaining the correct aspect ratio of Academy ratio material and non-anamorphic DVDs. One of the most annoying things about my existing player is that it will only output component video in 16:9, which leads to all sorts of distortion when watching 4:3 content.

The Speaker Setup page allows you to set the audio downmix mode (either Lt/Rt, Stereo, Virtual Surround or 5.1), define the presence of speakers and set them as either small or large, and even configure channel delay. The Audio Setup page allows you to define digital output as either RAW or PCM, change the LPCM rate (48K, 96K or 192K), change the audio tone (useful for Karaoke discs and not much else), configure Pro Logic II and Dolby Digital options, and edit the options for DRC, channel trim, audio delay and HDMI audio. This last option allows you to tell the player what kind of audio it should send over HDMI, depending on whether you are connecting to an external amplifier or directly to a TV (you can also turn HDMI audio off completely if you prefer to use either coaxial or optical).

The Video Setup page allows you to change the settings for sharpness, brightness/contrast and saturation. Of course most people will want to leave the sharpness setting well alone at the risk of introducing unnecessary artefacts, but it’s nice to have the ability to tweak the other settings to further refine the image. You can also choose to enable or disable TrueLife, but as many of the player’s more advanced functions rely on it I would advise against turning it off. You can also edit settings for CCS (useful when viewing static images, but not during normal operation) and set the level of noise reduction, but again I recommend leaving this off at the risk of ruining the image. Two video modes are also available (called, unsurprisingly, 1 and 2), which allow you to tailor the system for NTSC or PAL material. Video mode 1 is better suited to NTSC, picking up and locking onto 2-3 cadence, whereas mode 2 will also handle the 2-2 cadence of PAL material. Finally, it is possible to switch the RGB range between normal and enhanced, which is useful for restoring proper black levels on certain TVs.

Finally, the Preference page allows you to define the TV system type, with the options being NTSC, PAL or auto. I recommend setting it to auto, which will output video in the format encoded on the disc, but those without multi-standard TVs (usually people in the US) will welcome the ability to perform standards conversion. The other, run-of-the-mill options include PBC, the ability to define the preferred language for disc’s audio, subtitles and menus, and parental control options.

Performance

In order to test the quality of the DV-981HD’s playback I decided to use a variety of sources representing the most common types of video that I (and most other people) watch. Basically this meant anamorphic and non-anamorphic video in both NTSC and PAL flavours, ranging from animation to the latest digital green-screen epics. Where possible, I used a second copy of the film on my current Pioneer deck via component video, flicking between sources on the fly to see how the Oppo faired against my TV’s internal scaling and deinterlacing capabilities.

In order to put up-conversion through its paces, I began with a region one copy of The Phantom Menace. Since the transfer had come in for a lot of criticism in the past, particularly from those with larger screens, I decided it would make for a good test of the Oppo’s prowess. To say that I was impressed is an understatement. While not quite ‘high-def’ quality, the image looked extremely impressive scaled from 480i to 1080p considering how much information had to be interpolated. What’s more, the annoying edge enhancement that drew much of the criticism was barely visible on my 42” screen from ten feet.

Before moving on to the non-anamorphic test I tried a few more anamorphic titles, including Sin City, Rise of the Silver Surfer, Revenge of the Sith, The Incredibles and 300. These all looked great, with the exception of 300, which just looked too grainy when scaled to 1080p. Of course the DVD was never intended to be scaled to such a high resolution, so it’s not really fair to blame the Oppo for what is actually an element of the original source material.

I was anxious to test the non-anamorphic playback because of the aforementioned ability to pillar-box the image instead of stretching it to fit a 16:9 frame. I have a few non-anamorphic classics in my collection, such as the original Star Wars trilogy and the Criterion editions of Silence of the Lambs and RoboCop, so this function really appealed. I tested using RoboCop and the Oppo did a perfect job of maintaining the aspect ratio without me having to resort to fiddling with the television’s zoom modes. What a great little feature. I was also very impressed by the image quality of non-anamorphic video, given that there were even fewer lines of resolution to work with.

In order to test cadence detection I first played a number of titles (PAL and NTSC) on my Pioneer player, both in interlaced and progressive modes. As I expected, my TV did a reasonable job of locking onto 2-3 and 2-2 cadences from 480i/576i sources, but when I switched to 480p/576p I saw noticeable jaggies on PAL material. This is to be expected from a budget deck like the DV370, which just can’t handle 2-2 cadence properly.

Switching to the Oppo saw an immediate improvement over both the Pioneer and my television. For starters, the player locked onto both the 2-3 and 2-2 cadences of the source material and stayed there, which is exactly what one would expect given Oppo’s reputation. Although my TV did a pretty good job at both scaling and deinterlacing, the Oppo was just that bit cleaner and smoother, with less edge ringing. Another advantage of using the Oppo was the ability to enable 1:1 pixel mapping from the 1080p sources to eliminate overscan (I really hate overscan).

I don’t own much video-sourced content (television shows and the like), and what material I do possess is PAL formatted. Still, I gave an episode of Spaced the once-over an didn’t notice any glaring issues, so the Oppo appears to handle video material very well (I’ve certainly read as much in more technically in-depth reviews). Another plus point for the DV-981HD.

One of the problems sometimes associated with the Genesis chipset is the Macroblocking Error, which shows up as a blocky artefact on large areas of flat colour. I’m happy to say that I really didn’t notice it during normal viewing conditions, and even when I looked for it I couldn’t be sure if it was really there or if I was seeing it because I expected to see it. I was also happy to see that one of the problems that plagued my older Pioneer player, the Chroma Upsampling Error, was absent from the Oppo. The ‘green push’ mentioned by David Beamish in his review is also absent (as it was on the DV-971H).

When the time came to examine the audio performance of the DV-981HD I have to confess to being somewhat limited in my ability to test all of the player’s features. Although the machine is capable of playing both DVD-Audio and SACD (Super Audio CD) formats, I don’t possess any such titles. Furthermore, because I listen to my movies though an external amplifier I didn’t really test the player’s decoding capabilities to the full, but I can confirm that the machine decoded both Dolby and DTS without any audible flaws. The same can be said of bitstream output over coaxial, which didn’t exhibit any audio dropout on discs that have caused lesser players to slip up in the past.

Aside from the audio-visual performance, the Oppo also possesses a number of other fine qualities. Firstly, the unit is very responsive, skipping and scanning without incident and traversing the layer changes on some of the more difficult titles in my collection as if they weren’t there. For instance, the Criterion edition of RoboCop has always caused a little bit of trouble for my previous machines—ranging from complete lock-ups on my first player to the slightest of pauses on my current Pioneer deck—but with the DV-981HD I didn’t notice it at all.

Convenience features include auto-resume, which allows you to continue from where you left off even after ejecting the disc (provided the user doesn’t disable the feature), while the bookmark function allows you to store up to twelve user-set points. The usual zoom and pan options are also available, as are numerous slow rewind and frame skip options. I even burned an episode of Heroes to disc to see how the machine handled DivX/XviD. The answer was, unsurprisingly, very well. One other thing I’d like to praise is the inclusion of an HDMI cable in the box. Okay, so it’s not strictly a convenience feature, but I did find it extremely convenient! I’m always astounded by the way small companies such as Oppo Digital can include a high-quality HDMI cable with their modestly-priced DVD player, yet massive companies like Samsung can’t manage to do so with a Blu-ray player costing double the amount. It’s another win for the ‘little guy’.

However, lest I be accused of heaping too much praise on the DV-981HD, I do have a one minor issue with the machine, and it relates to auto resume feature. It’s great in theory, but the reality is that the player only remembers your position in the film if you stop and then eject the disc. That’s right, unlike pretty much every other DVD player I’ve used, you have to actually eject the disc for it to work. If you simply stop playback and then put the machine into standby, the auto-resume doesn’t work. Slightly odd and more than a little annoying.

Overall

All things considered, I think Oppo has a bit of a winner on their hands here. Even without the impressive up-conversion and deinterlacing features, the DV-981HD is still a great little machine that delivers solid performance and tasty images that easily match my current DVD player (which has served me well for a number of years). When you add the aforementioned video processing trickery into the mix, the results only improve.

£179 may seem like a lot of money to some of you, especially when you can pick up an up-converting progressive scan DVD player for around £100 elsewhere, but many of the so-called ‘budget’ decks just don’t cut the mustard when it comes to deinterlacing and scaling. Yet more of you might well be asking why you even need an up-converting player in the first place. Well, if you only own a handful of DVDs and watch on a smaller CRT set, you probably don’t. However, if you’re a movie buff with a brand new LCD TV sitting proudly in your living room, you’re really not doing it justice with the £30 DVD player that you picked up with the groceries.

The way I look at it is that the current high-def format war is still raging with no sign of a clear winner. Technology on both sides is still expensive and there’s every chance that you could end up investing in the next ‘Betamax’, so why not maximize your existing DVD collection until the dust settles? Oppo Digital’s DV-981HD offers an affordable way to make the most of your DVD existing collection without having to commit to either of the next-gen formats before you’re really ready to do so.

Our thanks go to the good folks at CRT Projectors for making this review possible.

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Sjekster wrote: I'm guessing non anamorphic widescreen is what we call letterboxed? In that case, I see another reason to watch it in 4x3 fashion: subtitles. Often you see that they've put the subtitles in the black bars, so when you try to watch it fullscreen, the subs get cut off almost completely, or at least one row .

Some TVs have a "Subtitle" picture move, which moves the video image upwards a bit to make room for any subtitles in the bars.

LOL! Basically just think of it as rhythm. PAL material is generally split from a progressive film frame into two interlaced fields, which are then repeated in a 2/2 sequence over and over again. NTSC uses pulldown, playing two fields, then three, then two, so a 2/3 cadence.

True it's not as good a picture as doing nothing and sticking with a 'dwarf person' non-anamorphic print (which is worse imho) but with my Denon upscaling DVD/Sony Bravia 40" LCD set-up I simply 'zoom' the picture on the DVD and then 'squeeze' the picture on the TV.

Thus the edge information lost when zooming is brought back into the frame by squeezing. Hence I now have a full information Anamorphic sized transfer that goes right up to both sides of the TV screen.

It only takes about 20 seconds to do max.

And even on the 'Vipco' non-anamorphic "Bronx Warriors" release (obviously not a high spec transfer) the quality was still very good thanks to the quality high end work done by the mighty 'Denon' and the majestic 'Bravia' (a truly outstanding LCD screen). A better print, like the R1, non-anamorphic "Strange Days", looks excellent even doing this zooming and squeezing.

Lincoln6Echo wrote: That's not entirely correct. The Auto-Resume feature only works after a power cycle (Off and then On) if you hit "Eject" from the "Play" mode. It's only then that the player creates a Resume Point. If you hit "Stop" first, it won't create a Resume Point.

That is indeed correct. I'll amend the review when I get five minutes. I could have sworn I pressed stop before I hit eject, but I guess not...

Quote: Cadence detection basically just means that it can identify and lock onto the 2/2 or 2/3 cadence of telecinied material. I meant what's cadence? ;-)

Quote: That's not entirely correct. The Auto-Resume feature only works after a power cycle (Off and then On) if you hit "Eject" from the "Play" mode. It's only then that the player creates a Resume Point. If you hit "Stop" first, it won't create a Resume Point. I used to have an LG 3350 that remembered the position of the last 15 discs. It was so handy. When you put the disc back in it would ask you a Yes/No question if you want to start where you left off.

I don't think you could turn it off. It remembered the last 15 discs no matter how you stopped operation. Strangely LG removed it from their next model. I've not seen it since, mores the pity.

It doesn't work with Fox or Paramount DVDs as people are saying they use RCE which isn't correct when AFAIK only Sony ever used RCE. Regardless they don't work. I have read using the "Title" option on your remote you can still get the menu to work though.

Quote: However, lest I be accused of heaping too much praise on the DV-981HD, I do have a one minor issue with the machine, and it relates to auto resume feature. It’s great in theory, but the reality is that the player only remembers your position in the film if you stop and then eject the disc. That’s right, unlike pretty much every other DVD player I’ve used, you have to actually eject the disc for it to work. If you simply stop playback and then put the machine into standby, the auto-resume doesn’t work. Slightly odd and more than a little annoying.

That's not entirely correct. The Auto-Resume feature only works after a power cycle (Off and then On) if you hit "Eject" from the "Play" mode. It's only then that the player creates a Resume Point. If you hit "Stop" first, it won't create a Resume Point.

So essentially, if you wanna resume your film across multiple sittings, you have to leave the power on. I do this, but while doing so, I turn the front panel lights off, which just leaves the little blue power light on, which ironically is dimmer than the "off" red power light.

With regards to the video quality, the player does wonders on well-mastered SD-DVDs, but it won't help old poorly mastered discs. In fact, it makes them nearly unwatchable. One example is the old original "Demolition Man" disc. Absolutely terrible. Think the new "300" disc, and then multiply its graininess by a factor of 4 or 5.

For titles like "Transformers" it makes them look nearly HD.

It's just ashame that there has been such a change in DVD mastering over the years. Meaning that in the early years of the format, the compression methods weren't perfected yet. Unlike with the old VHS format where s**tty was still s**tty. LOL!

I'd say that any DVD title older than say 2001, definately needs a new transfer.

Anyway, I've had an 981HD since June when I finally bought my 42" AQUOS. I wasn't about to hook up my old Pioneer DV-434 to a new HDTV. Perhaps one of the worst progressive scan players to have ever been built. I went with the 981HD now because I'm not ready for the HD format yet. Not until the format war is over. And because I have a fairly large collection of DVDs, and the prices on the HD hardware and software is a bit too much still (not taking into account the recent attempt by Toshiba to dump its players on the market for just $100)

Hey, I'm not an audiophile I mostly listen to the sort of stuff that would never get a high resolution audio release, and I do that at my computer not in the living room. Cadence detection basically just means that it can identify and lock onto the 2/2 or 2/3 cadence of telecinied material. If players can't do that, you get loads of jaggies and ghosting.

Quote: cadence detection Can you explain what cadence detection is? I tried looking it up but quickly got confused.

Quote: Nope, it stretches all material to 16:9 when using the progressive mode over component. I think it's a 'feature', rather than a fault. Either way, it's annoying. That's crazy. 4:3 content stretched to 16:9 would be unwatchable. I don't think my Pioneer 868 does that but I've only ever used HDMI with it, except for a quick comparison against RGB Scart.

Quote: I wouldn't listen to either band, so not a lot of point. That's only two examples ;-)

Quote: That's the whole reason DVD-Audio and SACD never caught on in the first place. It is indeed one of the reasons, but then we're the Home Cinema Elite ;-)

Bradavon wrote: This DVD Player looks ace from a technical point of view but that remote looks awful and so do the menus. Granted the menus aren't exactly important.

As nice as this Oppo is I don't think it would beat my Pioneer DV-868AVi. It doesn't play DivX but otherwise beats it in every department. That is I'm presuming the upscaling and deinterlacing chip is better. It's remote, menus and overall look is much better. Still I did pay £550 for it. It doesn't support 1080p (the newer model does) just 1080i but then most people's TV cannot handle 1080p anyway. Mine can't.

A lot of the Pioneer's fail certain cadence detection, have the chroma bug and various other issues. Can't comment on yours though, cause I've not seen the model.

Quote: Isn't that what your Pioneer does? Or does it literally stretch 4:3 content to the sides turning the square into a rectangle. I've not explained it will but sticking to squares and rectangles makes it easier to explain. If so the player sounds faulty.

Nope, it stretches all material to 16:9 when using the progressive mode over component. I think it's a 'feature', rather than a fault. Either way, it's annoying.

Quote: Is that saying no DVD is actually Progressive? And is fake Progressive?

I think it's saying that they're encoded as interlaced field pairs for legacy reasons, but that flags are used to denote progressive content. That's why some players are better than others. If the progressive flags aren't done properly the player has all sorts of problems, which is when the adaptive deinterlacing in players like the Oppo come into their own.

Quote: As to DVD-Audio and SACD. I presume your Amp has 5.1 analogue or HDMI inputs? If so I seriously recommend you give both a go. There are some amazing ones out there. Such as The Eagles Hotel California on DVD-A or Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon on SACD. I'm not sure what artists you're in to but there are roughly 250-300 DVD-As (not much I know) and 18000 SACDs to choose from.

I wouldn't listen to either band, so not a lot of point. I listen to most of my music on mp3, which is 'good enough'. That's the whole reason DVD-Audio and SACD never caught on in the first place.

This DVD Player looks ace from a technical point of view but that remote looks awful and so do the menus. Granted the menus aren't exactly important.

As nice as this Oppo is I don't think it would beat my Pioneer DV-868AVi. It doesn't play DivX but otherwise beats it in every department. That is I'm presuming the upscaling and deinterlacing chip is better. It's remote, menus and overall look is much better. Still I did pay £550 for it. It doesn't support 1080p (the newer model does) just 1080i but then most people's TV cannot handle 1080p anyway. Mine can't.

Quote: They're still widescreen, just preserved in a 4:3 window as they would be watching on a 4:3 TV. But they are anyway? Unless your Pioneer is different. My Pioneer and every other TV I've seen (even when in Progressive mode) displays the Full-frame film (that's 4:3 not non-anamorphic) in a square with black borders on either side, as it's a 16:9 TV.

Isn't that what your Pioneer does? Or does it literally stretch 4:3 content to the sides turning the square into a rectangle. I've not explained it will but sticking to squares and rectangles makes it easier to explain. If so the player sounds faulty.

Quote: The problem with buying an HD DVD player is that it severely limits your choice of DVD titles. HD DVD might be region free, but DVD playback is still limited to region two. That's a big problem if, like me, a lot of your collection are region one/three/four. Good point. Forget my HD-DVD idea.

Quote: From DVD FAQ: 'There's enormous confusion about whether DVD video is progressive or interlaced. Here's the one true answer: Progressive-source video (such as from film) is usually encoded on DVD as interlaced field pairs that can be reinterleaved by a progressive player to recreate the original progressive video.' Is that saying no DVD is actually Progressive? And is fake Progressive?

As to DVD-Audio and SACD. I presume your Amp has 5.1 analogue or HDMI inputs? If so I seriously recommend you give both a go. There are some amazing ones out there. Such as The Eagles Hotel California on DVD-A or Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon on SACD. I'm not sure what artists you're in to but there are roughly 250-300 DVD-As (not much I know) and 18000 SACDs to choose from.

Quote: The Star Wars DVDs suffer with that problem. That really annoys me about non-anamorphic DVDs that require subtitles. You have to watch them in a widescreen mode not fully filling the screen. If you do you cut off the subtitles. That's another reason for me not to bother with the "Original" Star Wars DVDs. If they had bothered to remaster them I'd already own them.

I'm guessing non anamorphic widescreen is what we call letterboxed? In that case, I see another reason to watch it in 4x3 fashion: subtitles. Often you see that they've put the subtitles in the black bars, so when you try to watch it fullscreen, the subs get cut off almost completely, or at least one row .

Bradavon wrote: Why would you want to watch non-anamorphic widescreen films in a 4:3 fame? Sure they're present in a 4:3 manner but they're not designed to be viewed that way. They're still widescreen so are best presented in some widescreen mode. I can see the relevance when viewing 4:3 content though, but even then that is by default already pillerboxed, just select the 4:3 mode on your remote.

They're still widescreen, just preserved in a 4:3 window as they would be watching on a 4:3 TV. The problem with using cinema modes to stretch the image is that it degrades the video quality even further. A 42" LCD is big enough to comfortably watch a scope film in a 4:3 frame without straining the eyes.

With the Pioneer (and I assume other players) you cannot change the TV mode when outputting images progressively. Once you change to progressive output the unit locks into 16:9 mode and shows all material in that fashion, regardless of original ratio. It's highly annoying, but not with the Oppo

The problem with buying an HD DVD player is that it severely limits your choice of DVD titles. HD DVD might be region free, but DVD playback is still limited to region two. That's a big problem if, like me, a lot of your collection are region one/three/four.

They include composite etc in case there are problems with HDMI. You can hook it up via composite to troubleshoot.

Quote: Some DVDs, not all ;-)

From DVD FAQ: 'There's enormous confusion about whether DVD video is progressive or interlaced. Here's the one true answer: Progressive-source video (such as from film) is usually encoded on DVD as interlaced field pairs that can be reinterleaved by a progressive player to recreate the original progressive video.'

Got this player last week from Opposhop (Swedish) for about £177 + £6 postage.. It arrived in less than a week with an impressive delivery tracking system. This now sits proudly with my Tosh 523030HD and the 1080p is simply astounding when I have been sat for the past 10 years watching "regular" dvd's on a "regular" tv. Also impressive is the divx / xvid which ive never experienced before. Now i have the ability to burn 10-12 episodes onto 1 disc and watch in one sitting without having to convert to dvd.

I am more than impressed with this and highly recommend to anyone is serious about highdef, without having to take the plunge into the bluray / hd-dvd war.

It looks like an ace DVD Player but given the price of a HD-DVD Player wouldn't that be a better choice? Assuming you don't want a Dual Format Combo Player of course, like me.

It's impressive to see the audio side caters for 96K or 192K, that's rare. Most support no more than 48Khz. It's impressive to see SACD and DVD-A on board, even today that's super rare.

I still think a Toshiba HD-DVD Player is the better option but this Oppo sure does look to be stacked features wise!

That said considering you cannot get a HD Combo Player and SACD/DVD-A Universal Player in one this plus the upcoming Samsung HD Combo Player would make a great team!

I cannot work out why they still bother to include composite and stereo phono leads. Who actually uses them?

Quote: While it is true that HD displays are capable of scaling standard definition video, the same rule of thumb applies here as it does with deinterlacing—some displays do a very poor job. It is generally accepted that standalone units are more capable than all but high-end displays costing thousands of pounds. This is very true. Even cheap players usually handle upscaling better than moderately price LCD TVs.

Quote: Without getting too technical, this is an unfortunate side-effect of the interlaced video standards (NTSC and PAL) used in broadcast television and DVD video. Some DVDs, not all ;-)

I see DivX is also catered for. I've never seen a Player with SACD, DVD-Audio and DivX support before.

A lot of the features mentioned are also present on my Pioneer DV-868AVi but that cost me considerably more (£550).

Why would you want to watch non-anamorphic widescreen films in a 4:3 fame? Sure they're present in a 4:3 manner but they're not designed to be viewed that way. They're still widescreen so are best presented in some widescreen mode. I can see the relevance when viewing 4:3 content though, but even then that is by default already pillerboxed, just select the 4:3 mode on your remote.

p.s - Grrr the inability to amend posts after 20 minutes is annoying!

What model number is your Pioneer?

Forget that question I see it.

Quote: Although the machine is capable of playing both DVD-Audio and SACD (Super Audio CD) formats, I don’t possess any such titles. Tut tut you really should ;-)